March is Rodeo month in Houston, and Anna's preschool had their fun "Go Texan!" day to go right along with it. So, "Go Texan!" she did, as much as our limited supply at home allowed.

Poor little cowgirl had to make do with the tiny play hat she got at school as a party favor. I think we might need to buy our kids real cowboy/girl hats now that we are getting into the big-time school Texas-pride days. And I mean Texas Pride with a capital P. It's hard to live here and not feel it, native Texan or not. Maybe by next year's rodeo celebration she'll be lucky enough to have a pair of boots too. What self-respecting cowgirl in TX doesn't have boots, anyway? I want some boots too. Heck, I'm fixin' to outfit the whole family--y'all should be proud! Does this mean we're putting down roots? 4 years in a couple months, wow time sure flies.

Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, preschool-style!And they did some panning for gold activity and Anna brought home her pieces of gold she found.We love preschool!

Monday, March 14, 2011

This was one of my favorite pastimes when I was little. I remember playing with my best childhood friend, picking dandelions or other "flowers", and then spending hours curling the stems. I had a fun walk down memory lane today watching Anna light up as I taught her how much fun these flower stems can be!

Items needed:

Dandelions, spring yard "flowers" (aka weeds)An enthusiastic helper!Nice workspace where you can use a bowl of water--oh, and some paper towels are helpfulStep 1: Choose a flower with a nice long stemStep 2: Pinch off the flower head to remove from the stem.Step 3: Peel the stem in half lengthwise, starting at one end like so... peel all the way down so you have two pieces.Step 4: Put each piece of the stems in a bowl of water.Let them float around...Watch the magic for a while!Step 5: Remove from the bowl of water and let dry on a paper towel. Behold the beauty of curled flower stems! Despite the fact that they have no real useful purpose but to make you smile as you watch... Although, we were tempted to make a green picture with them for St. Patrick's Day this week. We may still do that tomorrow.So tell me, did you like to curl stems of dandelions as a child? Or maybe you did more of another memory I have--pinching the head of a dandelion off while singing, "Mama had a baby and the head popped off!" Yeah, I think I'll hold off on teaching that one to Anna and David. But I'd be willing to bet they'll learn it from some other children, much the same way I learned it. Isn't it great that some things will never change?

Edited to add:After I posted this I did a google search to see how popular this idea is and I found this blog post about it with actual dandelions. Dandelion CurlsWe don't have actual dandelions in our yard, so we had to made do with smaller stemmed weeds.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

needs the thrill of picking flowers in her backyard.And every mother needs a little girl to bring her bouquets of them to keep in a juice glass on the kitchen windowsill--just like she did for her mother when she was a little girl.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Anna style! We sing this fun primary song frequently at home. It's just such a happy, cheery song, and I love hearing Anna's cute little voice singing the words that I learned when I was her age. After a while, I started listening to her words a little more closely...

(Verse 2) Anna: In my pretty garden the flowers are naughty... "How do you do?" they say, "How do you do today?" In my pretty garden the flowers are naughty!

Me: Oh no! The flowers are "naughty"?

Anna: (thinking for a minute) Yeah, they were naughty

Me: Why are they naughty? What did they do?

Anna: Umm, maybe they didn't listen to their mommy. And they were mean to their brother. And they're not sharing.

Man, I hope those flowers turn it around soon. They might have to go to time out or something... I love cute little kids and the way they think and process!

In the Leafy Treetops

"In the leafy treetops the birds sing, 'Good Morning!'They're first to see the sun, they must tell everyoneIn the leafy treetops the birds sing, 'Good Morning!'

In my pretty garden the flowers are nodding'How do you do?' they say, 'How do you do today?'In my pretty garden the flowers are nodding."

Monday, March 7, 2011

Just a start, though. I spent a week ago Saturday outside for hours pruning our crepe myrtle trees in the backyard. We didn't cut them back last year, so this was 2 years of growth. We're still learning how to take care of our beautiful backyard--I sure hope I didn't kill them! Luckily, this Texas climate can be forgiving and most things spring right back without too much cultivating necessary.

Don't you just wish you could have helped clean up this mess? Kinda looks like a hurricane hit...Dan was the lucky one who got to spend most of this past Saturday breaking down branches and cutting everything down to a more manageable size while I ran the lawnmower around the yard.And we're starting to look much better!

Amazing how much the grass--well, weeds mostly still--have started greening up even in the last week. But it looks tidier, at least. Maybe the kiddos will enjoy running in the backyard a bit more without branches scattered everywhere. And here's what we're left with--anyone up for a bonfire?Our next yard tidying project:Really sad looking after those beautiful big green banana trees last summer. But they should come back on their own too, as we learned last year.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

While Anna is at preschool 3 mornings a week, David and I have been getting some fun play time together. Last week I decided to try and help him learn his colors better. And if he didn't learn what the different colors were too well, at least we had a good time. Water and food coloring can be lots of fun! Even when red is blue, and green is purple to a cute little 2-year-old...